Jump to Content

Media Release

October 23 2006

Building a new generation of Indigenous health professionals

An innovative project to nurture high potential Indigenous PhD students in the health sciences aims to rebuild capacity in Indigenous communities to deliver improved health outcomes.

The highly integrated project has been successful in attracting almost $2.4 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council in its latest round of research grants.

Project leader UniSA Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor Health, Robyn McDermott, says the project builds on successful work already being done to engage Queensland Indigenous communities in managing their own health because it aims to empower Indigenous research leaders in the area of public health.

“We know that despite strong efforts to improve the health of Indigenous people in Australia, they remain in considerably worse condition than the wider community,” Professor McDermott said.

“The success of this proposal is important because it shows a strong recognition by the NHMRC that new strategies are required and that we need to support health innovation and leadership within Indigenous communities to make a real difference to their health in the long term.”

Prof McDermott said historically Indigenous health research has been led by non-indigenous researchers with Indigenous researchers playing the “support roles”.

“This project turns that notion on its head,” she said.

“Six Indigenous scholars, already involved in and committed to public health, will be supported to complete high quality PhDs, by a team of experienced health researchers from around Australia.”

The support team includes academics with expertise and practical experience in social policy and health program evaluation in the fields of drug and alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing; men’s and youth’s health and mentoring; nutritional physiology, heart health and diet and exercise; biostatistics and epidemiology; diabetes prevention and chronic disease management; health promotion and health economics.

“This is a multidisciplinary approach that aims to target all the elements that will make a health program successful in the community – the health science, the management, the promotion and adoption and the economics,” she said.

“The PhD students will be working in communities as part of their study and will be able to use their considerable networks in Indigenous communities to inform their research and to act as ambassadors and role models for younger Indigenous students.

“Supported by the team of senior academics, they will form a research network among themselves but also provide one on one mentoring for undergraduate students across the five years of the program. They will also be engaged as undergraduate teachers in their area of expertise and become involved in seminars and workshops.”

The project to build a cohort of Indigenous research leaders in community health development will focus on six key areas.

Two Queensland based projects will examine the success of tobacco control and healthy lifestyle behaviours programs; one based in Whyalla is a metabolic fitness trial looking at the impact of diet and exercise on health; another with the Nunkawarrin Yunti Diabetes and Fitness project will look at the physical and mental health of urban Aboriginal populations; another based in SA will tackle men’s health with a particular focus on the development of a psychometric tool to assess violent male offenders and another will look at attitudes to career opportunities in Indigenous boys from years 10 and 11.

“This is one of the most innovative and creative projects to be funded by the NHMRC in this round because it is about more than traditional scientific research. It acknowledges that community health improvements are about attitudinal change and engaging with people. It also validates the idea that to build better health outcomes for Indigenous people, we must support the development of their own capacity to do the research, implement projects and evaluate the outcomes that will make a difference.”


 

Contact for interview

Media contact

top^